IIW Sabbath School

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Series Code: IIWSS

Program Code: IIWSS023011S


00:00 (uplifting theme music)
00:13 (music ends)
00:16 >>Welcome to "Sabbath School,"
00:18 brought to you by It Is Written.
00:20 We're glad to have you back with us again today
00:22 as we continue our study
00:24 of "Managing for the Master Till He Comes."
00:26 This is lesson number 11, week number 11.
00:29 We have one more to go, but we've got two great subjects
00:33 that we're going to be looking at
00:34 before we finish this quarter.
00:36 And we're delighted to have with us once again
00:38 the author of this quarter's lesson, Ed Reid.
00:40 He is an ordained minister and a licensed attorney,
00:44 and we're delighted with the content
00:48 that we have found in this quarter's lesson.
00:49 I know that you have found that as well.
00:51 Before we dive into this particular lesson,
00:54 "Managing in Tough Times,"
00:56 let's ask that the Lord would bless us.
00:59 Father, we ask again, as You have in the past,
01:01 that You would bless us once again.
01:03 Help us to understand how we can continue
01:05 to manage our finances in the difficult times
01:08 that are to come. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
01:12 >>Amen. >>Ed, welcome back once again.
01:14 >>Thank you, it's great to be here.
01:15 >>So we are getting toward the very end,
01:17 we've covered a whole lot of ground this quarter,
01:20 and we've got two lessons left, this one being one of them.
01:23 It's "Managing in Tough Times."
01:25 We've talked about tithe,
01:26 we've talked about helping out the poor,
01:29 we've talked about a whole lot of things,
01:30 but when we get down to the very end of time,
01:33 the Bible indicates
01:35 that there are going to be some very, very difficult times.
01:38 I'm gonna read the memory text here.
01:39 It says, "Offer to God thanksgiving,
01:41 "and pay your vows to the Most High.
01:43 "Call upon me in the day of trouble;
01:46 I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me."
01:49 At the end of time, there's going to be
01:51 some very difficult times for Christians.
01:55 How can we manage our finances?
01:58 How should we manage our finances--
02:01 and in light of what we know is coming?
02:04 >>Well, it's an interesting situation
02:06 because the Bible talked about difficult times at the end.
02:09 When we look at what's going on today,
02:10 we can see that we're certainly
02:12 at one of the signs of the end.
02:13 So we've got bloodshed of all kinds, crime,
02:15 immorality, natural disasters, pandemics.
02:19 This is pretty current stuff, isn't it? Economic uncertainty
02:22 and political corruption and much more.
02:25 Now, there's a natural tendency
02:26 for people in those situations to get into a survival mode
02:30 and think only of their families--
02:31 "Make sure we've got everything that we need."
02:33 But what we're gonna talk about is
02:35 to remember that Jesus said, "If you put me first,"
02:39 what we wanna do is think of
02:40 what God's interests are on the earth.
02:42 And there's basically several different things
02:44 we know about; we just can talk about
02:47 something that we've talked about already,
02:48 and that's taking care of poor people and helping others,
02:51 also helping to see the cause of God go to all the world.
02:54 And that's one of the reasons I like It Is Written
02:56 because they're one of the international ministries
02:58 that makes sure that people are hearing the gospel
03:00 all around the world.
03:01 And people are working overtime in hard times,
03:03 their volunteers and all those team people here,
03:06 because they wanna see the work finished,
03:08 because Jesus said that this gospel thing
03:10 "will be preached in all the world"
03:11 for a witness to the end, "and then the end will come."
03:15 So I'm very glad for this,
03:17 that we're involved in things like this.
03:18 So we're in troublous days,
03:20 but God says, "Seek first the kingdom of God
03:21 "and His righteousness,
03:23 and [then] all these things [will] be added [unto] you."
03:24 >>You know, Ed, that really leads us into Sunday's lesson,
03:27 which is about putting God first.
03:29 What kind of important spiritual principles
03:32 can we learn from the story of Jehoshaphat's reign,
03:36 whatever the struggles are that we are facing?
03:40 >>Well, that's a good question,
03:41 because when you look through the Bible,
03:42 there are many good kings and many bad kings,
03:44 more bad kings than good kings in Israel and Judah.
03:47 But Jehoshaphat was a good king,
03:48 and God had blessed him,
03:50 and he had been able to fortify the cities of his country
03:52 and to restock all the supplies that they needed and so on.
03:57 And then something amazing happened;
03:59 a great multitude from Moab and Ammon and Syria,
04:01 huge crowd, his spies told him
04:04 that these people were coming into the land
04:06 and planning to ransack the city.
04:08 So instead of resorting to his own energies
04:11 and his own work that he had done,
04:13 he called upon God.
04:15 So I'm gonna give you the short version right now,
04:17 and then I'll give ya, flesh out this a little bit more.
04:19 In your Christian life, you do your best to prepare.
04:21 We talked about some of the things we've already--
04:23 you wanna make sure you're out of debt,
04:24 that you're a diligent worker,
04:26 that you're saving for the future
04:28 and that you're helping others and so on,
04:30 but when the chips fall, you understand that God
04:33 is really your first person that you call.
04:35 I remember being involved
04:36 in several trying circumstances in my life,
04:38 and people would say, "Well, we've tried everything.
04:41 Now it's time to pray."
04:43 Jehoshaphat didn't do that; he said,
04:44 "It's time to pray first." So they went to the temple,
04:46 and you remember Solomon said years ago,
04:48 when they first dedicated the temple,
04:52 that if the people of God would pray
04:54 and look toward Jerusalem during times of difficulty,
04:56 that God would bless them.
04:57 So here they came, the Bible describes it
04:59 as men, women, and children coming to the temple,
05:01 and little children holding
05:02 onto their mothers' and daddies' hands and coming there,
05:05 and Jehoshaphat made this big prayer.
05:08 And I'm gonna read the prayer to you;
05:09 it's pretty interesting:
05:11 "We have no power against this great multitude
05:13 "that's coming against us; nor do we know what to do,
05:15 but our eyes are upon You," talking to God.
05:17 And then after, they committed themselves
05:18 to God in this manner,
05:20 and the spirit of the Lord came upon a man who said--
05:22 this was a man in the audience,
05:23 and he said--he was a prophet apparently--
05:25 and he said, "Do not be afraid [or] dismayed
05:27 "because of this great multitude,
05:29 "for the battle is not yours, but God's....
05:31 "You will not need to fight in this battle.
05:32 "Position yourselves,
05:33 stand still and see the salvation of the Lord."
05:35 Now, this is incredible. So the next morning,
05:37 the king assembled the people all together
05:40 with a Levitical choir. Can you imagine this?
05:44 This is about as foolish as marching quietly around Jericho
05:48 when the walls of Jericho came down.
05:50 But he said, "What I wanna do is
05:52 to send the choir out first singing praises to God;
05:54 then the soldiers can follow them."
05:58 So the Levitical choir went out to the front;
06:01 then the king admonished the people
06:03 these words from 2 Chronicles 20:20--
06:05 this should be underlined in everybody's Bible:
06:07 "Believe in the Lord your God,
06:08 "and you shall be established;
06:09 believe His prophets, and you shall prosper."
06:11 In other words, "Since God has told us what to do,
06:12 let's do it." So the choir began to sing,
06:15 and their enemies destroyed one another,
06:16 and the Bible says, "None escaped,"
06:18 2 Chronicles 20:24; not one man escaped.
06:21 This was such a great victory for Israel,
06:23 though no blood got on anybody.
06:25 This is interesting that it took them four days,
06:29 or three days just to collect the spoils of the battle.
06:31 And on the fourth day, they returned to Jerusalem,
06:33 singing as they went.
06:34 And of course, the God who delivered them
06:35 is the same God who we love and worship today.
06:37 So His power is just as great today;
06:39 the challenge before us is to trust Him and His leading.
06:43 >>So God's people faced a great challenge,
06:46 but He had a way, He provided a way out for them,
06:51 and they ended up benefiting in the end.
06:53 Didn't look like a great outcome was coming,
06:56 but God had that all cared for.
07:00 >>That's true. >>Trust--
07:01 trust in God. Trust in God.
07:03 I wanna hit Monday's lesson,
07:04 "Trust God, Not Your Own Resources."
07:07 We've looked at Jehoshaphat and how he made a wise decision,
07:11 chose to follow God's leading. What about David?
07:14 David also learned some lessons along the way.
07:17 Some of them he may have learned easily,
07:20 and others he may have learned the hard way.
07:22 What can we learn from David?
07:24 >>It's really interesting; we look at King David's life,
07:27 he was a man of war,
07:29 and best I can tell, he never lost a battle.
07:33 But this great commander
07:35 was kind of resting in his successes,
07:38 and he decided he was gonna count--
07:40 what we call "number"--Israel,
07:41 to count his soldiers and so on.
07:42 So he called his chief of staff in the army, Joab,
07:46 to come in and said, "I want you to count
07:48 "and see how many soldiers we have.
07:49 "Go from Dan to Beersheba, the whole country of Israel,
07:51 counting all the people."
07:53 David should have known better than this
07:54 because his best friend, Jonathan,
07:55 had defeated the Philistines
07:57 with just he and his armor-bearer, you remember,
07:59 real interesting story.
08:01 But Joab said to David, trying to reason with him,
08:03 "Listen, we don't need to do this.
08:04 "No matter how many people we have,
08:06 God's always been with us, and He'll take care of us,"
08:08 but David insisted that they go.
08:10 And by the way, it's interesting
08:11 that when you read 1 Chronicles 21, verses 1-14,
08:16 it says, "Satan stood up against Israel
08:17 and provoked David to number Israel."
08:19 So it was Satan's idea to count the people,
08:20 but David didn't counter that,
08:22 he said, "No, God's gonna take care of me,"
08:23 but he told Joab, "No, I insist you count the people."
08:26 So when the counting was done,
08:29 they came back, and Joab gave him the report.
08:31 Something interesting, the prophet came up to them
08:33 and said, "You've done wrong here.
08:36 There's three things that could happen to you."
08:38 And what David chose was, "Let me fall in the hands of God."
08:41 So it's really interesting that in the immediate context,
08:44 attempting to trust in our own power
08:45 and government can have--and our own bank accounts--
08:48 can have disastrous consequences,
08:51 and they did that in this particular case.
08:54 So, you remember that a plague came on Israel,
08:57 and 70,000 people died. That was not their own fault,
09:00 but this was a rebuke to David, of course.
09:03 And this is interesting, in the present time,
09:04 we wanna square up with God, get out of debt,
09:06 and be generous with what we have been given,
09:09 but the old gospel song that many of us have heard before--
09:12 "If we ever needed the Lord before,
09:14 we sure do need Him now."
09:15 So it's not time to wait till everything else is done,
09:17 but to seek God on a regular basis,
09:20 be filled with His Holy Spirit
09:21 to give you providential leading in your life,
09:23 and be ready to follow God's counsel, and trust in the Lord;
09:26 that's what the whole Bible is about: trust in the Lord.
09:29 >>Yeah, I think absolutely an important lesson to learn,
09:32 and hopefully we can learn it a little bit more easily
09:35 than David had to learn it
09:36 because that was a high price to pay to learn that.
09:39 Tuesday's lesson is "Time to Simplify?"--a question.
09:44 We are facing today challenging times;
09:46 I think most people would agree with that.
09:48 We know times are going to get more challenging
09:50 as time goes on. What should we as Christians do
09:53 in response to difficult times?
09:56 How should we respond to it? What should we do?
09:58 Are there any preparations that we can make?
10:01 Are there things that we can do beforehand
10:03 knowing that difficult times are coming? How do we prepare?
10:06 >>Well, we're talking later in the quarter
10:08 about getting out of debt. This is very, very valuable.
10:11 The average person has quite a bit of debt,
10:13 but we don't wanna be one of those people
10:15 because that can really be a burden to us
10:16 and tie us down to this earth.
10:19 I can tell you for one thing
10:20 that there are many opportunities--
10:22 even It Is Written offers some a couple times a year
10:25 where people can volunteer and go with them
10:26 for mission trips.
10:28 The people that are in debt really would love to go,
10:29 but they can't afford to be off of work,
10:31 or they can't afford the expenses of going and so on.
10:34 So if you're out of debt, you live a much freer life,
10:36 you're not bound by the debts,
10:38 and you can do things that are valuable.
10:39 So that's one thing you can do, and I always mention that.
10:42 Be generous with others,
10:43 God will bless you when you do that,
10:45 and I will also suggest that we trust God, to start with,
10:49 and just say this is part of our trust in God,
10:52 we wanna make sure that God's with us
10:54 and that we're with Him and we trust Him,
10:55 and He'll take care of us.
10:57 Let me tell you about the possessions.
10:59 In 2 Peter, the third chapter, we talk about
11:01 when the Lord comes back,
11:02 the earth's gonna be "melt with fervent heat,"
11:03 and all the works of men will be burned up.
11:07 So what we're talking about is
11:08 we should try to divest ourselves of our assets
11:10 to help finish the work, so that when Jesus comes back,
11:13 not much of our stuff gets burned up at the end.
11:15 Does that make sense?
11:16 >>Makes a lot of sense.
11:17 >>So we're going forward with this kind of idea,
11:20 as to get our stuff in. There's a little statement
11:22 I've put in here under this section:
11:24 "It is now that our brethren
11:25 "should be cutting down their possessions
11:26 "instead of increasing them.
11:27 "We're about to move to a better country, even a heavenly.
11:30 "Then let us not be dwellers upon the earth,
11:32 but...getting things into [a] compact...[form] as possible."
11:35 So in the light of eternity,
11:36 well, we ought to be simplifying
11:37 because when the Lord comes back,
11:39 whatever we haven't used up for His cause
11:41 is gonna be lost, isn't it?
11:42 >>That's right; ultimately, everything is gonna end up
11:44 turning to ashes and smoke and will disappear, everything,
11:47 every material possession that we have.
11:50 One thing we're gonna be able to keep,
11:52 of course, as you know know, Ed, is our character.
11:54 And that's something that is indestructible, as it were,
11:57 at least by fire for the righteous.
12:00 We are looking at how we can prepare for difficult times,
12:03 managing the gifts that God has given us.
12:06 We're near the end, we're on the 11th lesson of 12,
12:10 the 11th week out of 12.
12:12 If you have put off picking up the companion book
12:15 to this quarter's lesson,
12:16 don't put it off any longer.
12:18 You will be blessed by it abundantly.
12:20 It is entitled "Managing for the Master."
12:24 And you can pick it up at itiswritten.shop.
12:27 Again, that is itiswritten.shop.
12:29 Just search for "Managing for the Master"
12:31 by G. Edward Reid.
12:33 We're delighted to have him
12:34 each and every week here this quarter on "Sabbath School."
12:38 And he shared some incredible insights;
12:40 some of those insights are in this book.
12:43 So if you wanna dig a little bit more deeply into it,
12:45 this book is what you want to pick up,
12:48 and it will be an incredible blessing to you.
12:50 We're going to be back in just a moment or two
12:52 as we continue looking at "Managing in Tough Times."
12:57 There are tough times today,
12:58 and the times are only going to get tougher,
13:00 so we're looking for practical ways that we can manage
13:03 during those times. Thanks for joining us this week,
13:06 we're gonna be back in just a couple minutes
13:07 as we continue our study.
13:09 We'll see you in a moment.
13:10 (uplifting theme music swells and ends)
13:15 >>[John Bradshaw] The prophet Daniel writes authoritatively
13:18 about the rise and fall of kingdoms, the fate of nations,
13:22 and the soon return of Jesus.
13:25 Join me for "Kingdom Come."
13:27 We'll witness the rise and fall of global powers,
13:31 we'll understand symbols
13:32 found in the writings of the prophets,
13:35 and we'll learn how Bible prophecy
13:37 applies to our current reality.
13:40 Waiting for the world to get better seems futile.
13:43 We exist in the midst of global confusion,
13:47 in a world wrestling with the devastating effects
13:49 of sickness, war, and death.
13:52 Yet God encourages us:
13:55 "The dream is certain." The interpretation can be trusted.
14:00 Jesus is coming back soon.
14:03 The best is yet to come.
14:06 Don't miss "Kingdom Come"
14:08 as we explore the book of Daniel.
14:10 "Kingdom Come" on It Is Written TV.
14:16 You know that at It Is Written,
14:17 we are serious about the study of the Word of God,
14:21 and we encourage you to be serious about God's Word also.
14:25 Well, I wanna share with you another way
14:27 that you can dig deeper into the Word of God,
14:30 and here it is:
14:31 itiswritten.study.
14:35 Go online to itiswritten.study
14:37 and you can access the It Is Written Bible Study Guides,
14:42 25 in-depth Bible studies
14:45 that will walk you through the Bible.
14:47 It's gonna be good for you,
14:49 and it's the sort of thing
14:50 that you will want to tell somebody else about
14:53 so that they can dig deeper into the Word of God
14:56 and come to know the things of the Bible intimately.
15:00 As you get into the It Is Written
15:01 online Bible study guides,
15:03 you'll understand the prophecies of the Bible,
15:05 the plan of salvation, and more.
15:07 So don't forget: itiswritten.study,
15:11 itiswritten.study.
15:15 (uplifting theme music)
15:20 >>[Eric] Welcome back to "Sabbath School,"
15:21 brought to you by It Is Written.
15:23 We're continuing our look this week
15:26 at "Managing in Tough Times."
15:28 And, Ed, I wanna take a look at Wednesday's lesson,
15:30 Wednesday talks about priorities.
15:33 In light of the future,
15:35 how should we arrange our priorities?
15:38 If we wanna put first things first,
15:40 what does "first things" look like?
15:43 >>Well, the Shema from the Old Testament
15:45 when the words of Moses were,
15:47 "Serve the Lord with all your heart,
15:48 your mind, and soul," and so on,
15:49 this is total commitment, all in for God.
15:52 And we have many Bible characters
15:54 that we'll talk about next week about that as well,
15:56 but I'd like to quote Mark 12, verse 30:
15:59 "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
16:01 "with all your soul, with all your mind,
16:03 and with all your strength."
16:04 When we give all to Christ,
16:05 there's nothing left to give to another master,
16:07 and that's why it is..said in Matthew 6:24,
16:11 "No man can serve two masters;
16:13 "...either he will hate the one and love the other,
16:14 or else [he'll hold] the one and despise the other."
16:16 And then this concluding statement of Matthew 6:24,
16:19 "You cannot serve God and mammon."
16:21 The Bible characters that serve God with all their heart,
16:24 they did some drastic things. I mean, they built the ark;
16:27 they traveled to foreign countries;
16:29 they committed their whole life
16:32 to extending the gospel and so on;
16:34 these are real important characters to me.
16:38 In 1 John 2:15-17, we're told, "[Love not] the world,
16:41 "[neither] the things [that are] in the world.
16:42 "If [any man] loves the world,
16:43 "the love of the Father is not in him.
16:45 "For all that is in the world--the lust of the flesh,
16:47 "the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life--
16:48 "is not of the Father but is of the world.
16:50 "And the world is passing away,
16:52 "[but then] the lust of it;
16:53 but he [that] does the will of God abides forever."
16:55 So the Bible actually harmonizes itself;
16:56 it says, "The world is passing away."
16:58 That's what is happening.
16:59 Paul said to us, "Set your affections [above],
17:01 on things above, not on things [of] the earth."
17:03 It's very clear for most of us who have lived long enough
17:05 that more money doesn't make people happier;
17:07 it really makes 'em more miserable, typically.
17:10 So the more we can help others,
17:11 the more we can help our family members,
17:13 the more we can help our church,
17:14 the more we can help things go forward,
17:16 help the poor, and so on.
17:17 Those are things we can do to arrange our priorities to be..
17:21 others, to care for others, not just ourselves;
17:24 that's the big point from this, I think.
17:26 >>So God's giving us opportunities even right now
17:28 to learn how to minister to others,
17:31 to learn how to have a giving and selfless attitude,
17:35 which are going to prepare us for difficult times.
17:38 Now, as students of the Bible,
17:40 and especially of Bible prophecy,
17:42 we know that sometime in the not-too-distant future,
17:45 there is going to be a time that comes
17:47 when those who choose to follow God completely,
17:50 as you mentioned a moment ago,
17:51 those who are all-in with God,
17:53 who aren't holding anything back,
17:55 who are taking a stand for Him,
17:56 are not going to be able to buy or sell.
17:59 Now, that sounds a little--
18:01 that sounds like it could be an anxious time
18:04 because we stop and think about
18:05 how much we buy and sell today.
18:08 You know, we buy our food, we pay our rent,
18:11 we pay our mortgage, we make our car payments,
18:13 if we have car payments, and so forth.
18:15 If we are not able to buy and we're not able to sell,
18:19 that is, to make money,
18:21 our ability to interact financially with the world
18:25 is inhibited significantly.
18:28 How is God going to take care of his people
18:31 and what can we do today to prepare for that time?
18:36 >>Well, it's really interesting, Eric,
18:37 that probably that everybody here
18:40 has been to a store somewhere
18:42 where you have somebody in front of you in line
18:44 when they try to use a credit card,
18:45 that it won't be accepted. And I was recently at a store
18:48 when a lady tried four or five different cards to--
18:50 it must've been all maxed out on her cards
18:52 because she couldn't make her payment.
18:54 Finally, she got one, a debit card, that worked.
18:57 And the bottom line is
18:58 we're heading more toward a cashless society
19:00 and digital currency and so on,
19:02 and it'd be very easy to say you can't buy or sell.
19:05 And that's a difficult time,
19:06 because the Bible paints a painful picture of the world
19:08 before the second coming of Jesus.
19:09 Daniel talks about "a time of trouble,
19:11 "such as never was since there was a nation,
19:13 even to that time," Daniel 12, verse 1.
19:15 So considering some of the troublous times of the past
19:17 he's referring to here, it must be pretty bad.
19:20 So how much of our lives today
19:22 revolve around buying and selling?
19:24 Well, this is interesting
19:25 because we do it more than we think.
19:27 People buy online a lot of times now,
19:29 and they have to use their credit cards.
19:30 What if it won't be accepted?
19:33 I mean, it's very interesting that we're talking about
19:36 an unusual situation of resetting and all that,
19:39 that we can worry about if we want to,
19:41 or we can trust God, but not being able to buy or sell
19:44 is not being able to function in society.
19:47 Can you imagine? Your internet will be cut off
19:50 if you can't pay for it; your electricity will be cut off;
19:53 your water supply will be cut off.
19:55 It's just--what can you do for that? How do we prepare?
19:58 Well, how we prepare now
20:00 is by making God's grace part of our lives,
20:03 not slaves to money or things of the world.
20:05 We're not bound up by them, but we won't be slaves to money
20:10 when we trust fully in God. Deuteronomy 14, verse 23
20:13 is one that I always like to talk about here.
20:15 God explained through Moses
20:17 one of His reasons for establishing the tithing system
20:19 was, "That you may learn to fear the Lord your God always."
20:22 This is what tithing is about. If you give part away to God,
20:24 that means you're gonna trust Him to take care of the rest.
20:27 In the Bible, there's something called poetic parallelism.
20:30 Many of you are familiar
20:31 when you study the Psalms and the Proverbs
20:32 that it says the same thing two different ways
20:34 in many of the verses. Here's one;
20:36 this is poetic parallelism of Psalm 31, verse 19.
20:40 We can see that fear is synonymous with trust.
20:42 So let me read the passage to you,
20:44 and you can see what we're talking about:
20:46 "Oh, how great is Your goodness,
20:47 "which You have laid up for those who fear You,
20:49 which You have prepared for those who trust...You."
20:51 So fear and trust are the same thing here.
20:53 These parallel lines show that the fear of the Lord
20:56 is trusting Him. Therefore we understand
20:58 that God established the tithing system,
21:00 not just to protect us from selfishness
21:01 and provide for His work,
21:02 but to help us to trust Him to provide for us.
21:05 While being faithful in tithe certainly is not a guarantee
21:07 that people will stay faithful in the end,
21:09 those who are faithful will be ones
21:11 who have learned to trust God,
21:12 and that's what kinda we're talking about here.
21:14 >>Ed, let me ask you; there may be somebody
21:16 who's watching this program, and they're--
21:19 you know, this week is "Managing in Tough Times"--
21:22 they may be thinking, "Well, I'm in tough times right now.
21:25 "I'm not even worried about
21:26 "what's gonna come down further on.
21:28 Right now my situation is tough."
21:33 What kind of words of encouragement,
21:34 what kind of advice,
21:36 what kind of counsel might you give someone
21:39 who says, "I'd love to be there at some point
21:42 "and prepared for the difficult times ahead,
21:45 "but I'm not even able to deal with the difficult times
21:48 that I'm facing right now"--
21:49 what kind of encouragement or hope
21:51 or advice would you give to someone
21:53 who finds themselves in that situation?
21:55 >>Well, it's certainly not time to despair,
21:56 it's time to trust in God and to learn His counsel.
21:59 As we--we'll talk about that
22:01 when we talk about getting out of debt.
22:02 One of the reasons people are in debt
22:04 is because they haven't learned to manage properly,
22:06 or they've had misfortune in their lives or whatever.
22:09 It's time to pray and commit their selves to God
22:11 like Jehoshaphat did.
22:13 I think it's very amazing that people today
22:16 are looking to their own resources.
22:18 And as you say, if they don't have any resources,
22:20 what do they do then? Well, they have to trust God for sure.
22:23 We really can't--people go to a life of crime if they,
22:26 you know--some people are just desperate to get food.
22:29 But the bottom line, I think, here
22:31 to answer the question is, put the priorities of the Bible--
22:34 and, in fact, put God first, trust Him,
22:36 be a diligent worker,
22:38 and try to avoid debt if at all possible.
22:41 We'll have a whole set--
22:42 we've had a whole section on getting out of debt,
22:44 and this is important stuff that we're telling you about.
22:46 It's not just fantasy;
22:48 everybody can benefit by the principles
22:50 we've talked about here.
22:51 "Honor the Lord with your possessions,
22:52 and...the firstfruits of all your [income]."
22:54 That's what Proverbs, third chapter, verse 9 talks about.
22:57 So I would say, commit yourself to the Lord.
23:00 I tell people recently,
23:01 that I've told a lot of young people,
23:03 you can't be too busy to be involved with God;
23:05 you can't be too busy to read His Word;
23:07 you can't allow Satan to keep you so busy
23:09 that you don't have time for spiritual things,
23:11 'cause the spiritual basis
23:12 is what really keeps us all together,
23:14 especially mentally and spiritually and physically,
23:16 in God's cause. I'm thinking that the more we trust God,
23:21 the more He will give us wisdom as to what to do.
23:23 One of the things that God does,
23:24 in addition to the promises that He's made in the Bible,
23:27 is providential leading.
23:28 You can pray that God will guide you with wisdom,
23:30 give you the--if you lack understanding,
23:32 ask Him to give you the wisdom.
23:34 It's hard to know what to do,
23:36 what kind of decisions to make in these kind of things,
23:37 but if you read Proverbs, third chapter, verses 1-10,
23:41 that's where one of my favorite places is for counsel.
23:44 I think people that can do that
23:45 will be very helpful to them.
23:48 >>So let's flip the situation on its head for just a moment,
23:51 let's say that there's somebody who's watching,
23:53 listening to this lesson today,
23:56 and they know of someone who's going through tough times,
23:59 and they have some means to be able to help.
24:02 What would be some ways that they could assist someone
24:06 who's going through tough times, but not be an enabler
24:10 of continued bad financial decisions
24:14 on the part of the other person?
24:16 How might they be able to help someone
24:18 who's going through difficult times,
24:20 but not make that other person's life more difficult by--
24:26 I lack the better term,
24:27 but bailing them out so that they can get in trouble again?
24:31 >>Well, there's--I would say
24:32 that you get simple means of instruction for people,
24:36 share the Sabbath school lessons with them, for example.
24:39 I'm sure that there are many people
24:40 that will benefit this quarter from the lessons
24:42 because they've tried to follow God's principles,
24:44 and He has blessed them. I can remember days--
24:47 Eric, you mentioned these kind of payments--
24:49 there was a time in our lives
24:50 when Kathy and I had the house payments,
24:51 we were paying on two cars, we had living expenses,
24:54 tuition expenses for our kids and so on,
24:56 and we thought, "Well, how are we ever gonna manage?"
24:58 But we learned these principles early
24:59 and put 'em into practice,
25:00 and God has blessed our family immensely.
25:02 So I think that I can give God the credit for that,
25:06 and we all know that it's important that we do that.
25:09 >>That's fantastic, great counsel,
25:11 both for those who may be going through
25:12 difficult times right now
25:14 and for those who may be able to assist them.
25:17 And regardless of which camp you happen to find yourself in,
25:20 I think there's some great advice there.
25:22 Any final words of wisdom, Ed?
25:24 I wanna read a quote here from the book "Steps to Christ"
25:27 and allow you to build a little something on it.
25:31 This is from the book "Steps to Christ," page number 44.
25:34 The author writes these words:
25:35 "The love of money, the desire for wealth,
25:38 is the golden chain that binds them"--
25:41 that is, people--"to Satan."
25:43 How does that fit,
25:45 how does that tie into what we're talking about right now?
25:48 >>The Bible says, "The rich rule over the poor,
25:49 and the borrower is a slave of the lender."
25:51 So you can't emphasize enough to try to get debt free;
25:54 this is important
25:55 because the devil would like us to think about money--
25:57 this one you just read
25:59 is exactly what happened to the rich young ruler;
26:01 he was bound by Satan's chains.
26:03 We don't wanna be bound to anybody's chains,
26:05 and especially not Satan and his group.
26:07 The devil is very crafty
26:08 in how he can catch people off guard,
26:11 and what we wanna make sure
26:12 is that we have made a provision for our family,
26:14 we've made a provision to help others,
26:16 we're faithful with our tithes and offerings,
26:18 and God will bless those who do that.
26:19 There's just no question about it.
26:21 There's been example in my life and our lives
26:23 and many that we've helped as well.
26:26 >>So some practical counsel this week that we've looked at,
26:28 how to manage in tough times,
26:31 times that we may be experiencing right now,
26:32 but certainly difficult times to come,
26:35 the Bible tells us that those are just around the corner.
26:38 And the more that we can get our finances in order today,
26:41 the better off we are going to be in the future,
26:43 and the fewer cords we will be bound with
26:48 by the devil later on. And we need to be as free as possible
26:52 by the time that comes, and that starts today.
26:55 Ed, thank you once again for joining us.
26:57 We have one week left to go,
27:00 one week left to go in this quarter,
27:02 and we're gonna tie everything together.
27:04 I trust that you have been blessed by this journey,
27:07 and if you have, please be sure
27:08 to let other people know about this program
27:11 so that they can be blessed as well,
27:13 and one final week that we can can, that we can glean
27:16 the last little bits of wisdom and insight
27:19 from our guest, Ed Reid,
27:21 at least on this subject in this quarter.
27:24 He's written some phenomenal books on this subject,
27:26 and I would encourage you to pick them up.
27:28 They are available at It Is Written
27:31 and other locations as well.
27:32 You'll be blessed by those books on faith and finances.
27:36 Have a wonderful week;
27:38 we look forward to seeing you again next time
27:41 when we come back here to "Sabbath School,"
27:44 brought to you by It Is Written.
27:47 God bless you, have a wonderful week,
27:48 and we look forward to seeing you again next time.
27:52 (uplifting theme music)
28:07 (uplifting theme music)
28:27 (music ends)


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